KARACHI: Facing hardship due to a daily traffic mess in their residential neighbourhood during the start and dispersal time of a private school in Clifton`s Block 5, several residents have moved the Sindh High Court that is due to take up their petition on Thursday (today).

Shabbir Hussain Anjarwala and nine other residents had petitioned the SHC in 2022 and submitted that the school The Learning Tree -was being illegally and unlaw-fully run on a residential plot in Block 5 in blatant violation of the lease.

They cited the land utilisation secretary, Sindh BuildingControlAuthority, Karachi Development Authority and the school as respondents.

They had submitted that in 2019, without obtaining any approval or consulting with the neighbouring houses, the owner of the subject property began construction on the compulsory open space (COS) of the plot in violation ofthe Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations, 2002.

The petitioners said that the school had illegally amalgamated two residential plots into one plot/subject property measuring 2,000 square yards and illegally using the same for commercial purposes.

In July 2022, the SHC had issued notices to the respondents and thereafter, the SBCA had filed comments in which it stated that the authority had granted separate approvals of proposed plans for ground-plus-one residential bungalows.

`Now the occupants had acquired the residential bungalows on rent whichagreement is illegal in the eyes of law as residential property cannot be rented out for any other purpose while occupants have established a commercial school without any lawful authority or conversion from the authorities concerned,` it added.

The SBCA had further stated that instead of removing illegal commercial school or filing an appeal under Section 16 of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979 the management of the school had filed a petition in SHC in 2022 in an attempt to protect illegal use of residential premises for commercial purposes.-Staff Reporter